In the kitchen: When less is more

When I moved into my first apartment, my kitchen was stocked in an appropriate college-student fashion: cast-off pieces of stained Tupperware, cheap pots and pans that warped when they got hot, and a few new gifts that my practical relatives had given me for high school graduation presents.

By the time my husband and I were engaged, I thought that “real” cooks had certain types of tools in their kitchens. I also thought that the most expensive tools lasted longer and were the best value. Oh, and time-saving tools were a necessity for busy cooks such as myself. So I created a wedding registry accordingly.

As it turns out, I was wrong on all accounts, but it took some time to realize that. Although I will share what I think is necessary in my kitchen, I am not you, of course. I don’t cook like you cook, and my kitchen is not your kitchen. My kitchen (see pictures here) is not huge, but it’s not small as Mark Bittman’s either. However, decluttering was great, and I like my counter tops to be clear. So what’s necessary in a kitchen, and how much do you need to spend to have a working kitchen?

Mark Bittman argues that you can set up a kitchen for $300. If doing it all over again, I would have three goals:

Spend as little as possible.

In the interest of space, buy as few things as possible.

When quality matters, buy quality for as cheaply as possible. When it doesn’t matter, buy the least expensive product.

What I could live without

1. Toaster. We got a huge four-slice toaster when we were married. We probably used half of the toaster twice a month for the first eight years. For as little as we use it, we could make toast with our broiler.

2. Food chopper. This tool cuts nuts and onions by smacking the top of it and engaging rotating steel blades. I gave mine away. A knife can do this, so you could save $32 (The Pampered Chef’s version’s cost) by avoiding this one.

3. Serving bowls. I have mixing bowls and serving bowls. It would have made more sense to buy a set that was both pretty and practical.

4. Non-stick pans. We have a set of non-stick pans. We cared for them according to the manufacturer’s directions, but after five years of use, they were still flaking. For that reason, I won’t buy non-stick pans again. Plus, they require non-metal utensils, so if you have both non-stick and regular pans, you may have two sets of utensils.

5. Dutch oven. I have never had one, although I occasionally drool over the Le Creuset ones.

6. Digital scale. I personally don’t have a scale, but most of the websites I checked out did put this on their short list of tool requirements.

7. Food processor. I had one, but rarely used it. Other people say it makes the best pastry crusts. But I rarely make pastries.

8. Knife block. My husband, who loves cleared counter tops more than I do, is counting down the days until the knife block disappears. And really, he’s right. A paring knife, big knife, and a bread knife would be enough for me. My small hands like The Pampered Chef Quikut knife for just over $2. I have had it for years, and I think it’s an amazing deal for the money.

9. Any appliance that is large and has one purpose. Quesadilla makers, a Keurig, a pizza maker, etc. Although I don’t take my own advice and make an exception for my waffle maker and regular coffee maker.

The nice-to-haves

1. Stand mixer. My stand mixer is a Kitchenaid — and wow! — do I love that thing. However, I didn’t get one until three or four years ago. Instead, I survived with a hand mixer and didn’t need anything else. I did receive the fruit/vegetable processing attachment as a gift and now use it to make applesauce from our apple trees.

2. Blender. Before I got a stand mixer, I had a blender/food processor combo. One part cracked a couple of times and needed to be replaced, but it was okay otherwise. But one year for Valentine’s Day (this was one appliance that really said “I love you!”), my husband gave me a Vitamix. Expensive, yes, but awesome. It should last a very long time.

What I don’t want to live without

1. Cast iron pan. As I mentioned above, I am over non-stick pans. Cast iron pans, though, aren’t non-stick, but they act like it as long as you season and care for them correctly. Surprisingly, my pan was around $20 and looks like I will be able to give it to my grandchildren. It is heavy, though, which isn’t a bad thing if you need a door stop.

2. Hand mixer. While I could probably develop more muscles with a wooden spoon and a whisk, I do like my hand mixer. I am not sure that I need a hand mixer and a Kitchenaid, but I have both. And I use both.

3. Pans. I already mentioned the pans I have. Shopping for pans is intimidating. I suggest reading reviews, or trying to find old sets like Farberware or Revereware at estate sales.

4. Rubber scrapers. I use these scrapers all the time. After eight years of daily use, they are only stained, but are otherwise as good as new.

5. Digital thermometer. Thermometers can be used to prevent under- or over-cooking, thus preventing bad meals and using more heat than necessary. Check out this chart for appropriate cooking temperatures.

Ironically, as I look over this list, my kitchen still seems excessively overstocked. I don’t have a minimalist kitchen yet, nor am I likely to. But I will keep moving that direction as I become a better cook and realize which tools I need and which ones I don’t. I have had some amazingly delicious, but simple meals in other countries that were cooked in kitchens with the bare minimum, so I definitely don’t need as many gadgets as we have.

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I think everyone ends up with one or two things that are ‘unnecessary’ but that you use often enough it doesn’t matter. For me it’s my rice cooker – it’s just so much easier to dump the rice in and know it’ll stay hot and ready.

Winter breakfast is either eggs (omelets with bacon or cheese and ham or spinach, etc) or oatmeal (in almond milk with chocolate + bluberries + walnuts or PB), plus hot tea with milk, and a grapefruit or something. If in a hurry or desperate then it’s a smoothie (almond milk, berries, banana, whey powder) and black tea.

Lunch will be a meat with veg and sometimes a starch or beans or something hearty. Some of this was fixed on weekends some of it maybe it’s made fresh, depending. Maybe if we’re really hungry (e.g. after chopping wood in the cold) we add dessert (bought like ice cream, or invented on the spot like butter-sauteed bananas with sugar and cinnamon and a sprinkle of walnuts). Then more tea (this time black).

Dinner will be light like an apple and cheese, or a greek yogurt with nuts and berries, or a bit of sardines on a cracker. To drink wine or beer or some tasty hooch or a hot rooibos, depending.

Hah ha, I love to eat, but I’m looking forward to a lighter spring menu. I’m missing fresh greens, but I hate to eat salad in cold weather.

You already have a slow cooker.
It’s called an oven.
Despite its size – it is much more efficient than most slow cookers because of the insulation.

Most electric ovens also have 2 very useful features:

Timers – set your oven to go on in the afternoon, instead of leaving a slow cooker on all day. Or set your oven to go off after a certain time – letting you prep in the evening, and cook while you sleep.

Convection fan setting – saves time and energy, cooks more evenly, no need for an additional counter-top appliance.

Silicone spatulas/scrapers, bamboo spoons, my crock pot and rolling pin are my essentials. I just ordered a couple of cast iron pieces to switch over to in the new year, as my non-stick cookware is flaking and not working so well. I had a stand mixer and hated it so I sold it. I’ve never used the broiler part of my stove.

The link to the rubber scrapers is broken. Which is too bad because I am on a quest for the holy grail of rubber scrapers. They are the bane of my kitchen equipment.

That said, I own 3 dutch ovens, one Le Creuset, one Martha Stewart, and one from TJMaxx, I frequently have 2 on the stove top and one in the oven, those are definitely things that I could not live without.

Immersion blender! Love it – so great for making soups that require pureeing. Kind of a niche piece, but I don’t own a blender any longer (and I hated pouring hot soups into the blender anyways), and the immersion blender is small and fits into the kitchen utensil drawer, so it’s a good fit for my kitchen.

I LOVE my immersion blender! Soup-making is so much easier with it than having to transfer hot soup to a blender or a food processor – and it’s so much easier to clean than the food processor, too!

Things I need to give away are a cheap mandolin and a tool that was supposed to cut curly fries but is darned near impossible to use. I got them as birthday gifts about a year ago and all I’ve been able to cut with them so far are my fingers…

We gave away our slow cooker, I hated the late night or early morning prep.
Never owned a processor and don’t think we need it.
Got rid of the wok as well as many other gadety things like an apple peeler etc.

What we do use and I could not live without:
Wooden spoons, measuring spoons and cups, a big glass measuring cup, mortar and pestle, cutting boards, paring knife, big Ginsu and a bread knife, hand mixer, popcorn maker, 2 slice toaster, sifter, apron, towels and paper towels.

You must be doing something different with the non-stick pans or using metal stuff in them. My tefal frying pan was bought more than 6 years ago and is still almost good as new. One knife mark on it from someone who didn’t know better.

These things aren’t expensive either. Picked up the last one for less than 30Euro.

I have Calphalon pans which were supposed to be good. Maybe yours is a better brand? We don’t use metal utensils and follow all other recommendations (no high heat, no dishwasher and so on). I am not sure what the problem is, but we’ve tried to be diligent when using them.

I think that the nonsticks have a limited life span, especially if you use them frequently, possibly every 3 years or so because if they show too much wear I replace. Remember not to heat without something in them (even if just a bit of oil) I only use them for certain things and the iron skillets for the rest.

My husband is a kitchen gadget hoarder and it drives me crazy! We have everything you could possibly need to cook, and some things we have two of. We have two blenders….I got him a new one that was supposed to replace the old one, but he kept them both. If I were the one cooking, I would get rid of at least half of the stuff in our kitchen, but since he is the cook I put up with it. Still, we have: two blenders, two crock pots, a griddle, a waffle maker, toaster, quesadilla maker, two FULL sets of pans, two coffee makers, electric can opener, regular can opener, electric frying pan, hand mixer, and I know there’s a ton more I can’t even think of. Also many different sizes of glass and metal baking dishes, cookie sheets, muffin tins, cooling racks and an entire cabinet just for tupperware-type storage containers. This is all in quite a small kitchen; in fact, some of it has had to move downstairs into our storage room because there’s just no room for it all. He wants a stand mixer now but I’ve told him he will have to get another house if he wants that, there’s just nowhere to put it where we live now!

I am a single parent of teens, very experienced home cook. used to entertain (before children) making all sorts of fancy things. Just saying, I know how to cook and still cook most meals from scratch, but working full-time and busy and have simplified over the years. I do not have a dishwasher.

We eat a mix of paleo, standard American and raw vegan (yes, I know… but there are 4 of us with different tastes)

Looking at what people find essential or not, it differs. Toaster: disagree, we use ours pretty much every day. I have a couple nonstick pans I use alot (primarily for eggs). We don’t have a dishwasher so everything is hand washed and use plastic spatulas, but yes they do need to be replaced every few years but they are inexpensive enough this is not a big deal.
I agree about the buying by the piece. We eloped so never got a big influx of cookware for our house, therefore it was really by trial and error we got the idiosyncratic assemblage that works for us including a large cast iron skillet and cast iron dutch oven we use ALOT. Also knife blocks, digital scales, specialized equipment I agree not essential. As far as large appliances, depends. We have a microwave, a coffee pot, a blender, a waffle maker a coffee grinder and a crock pot, but we use these enough (daily to weekly or monthly) it is worth us to find storage for them. I would probably prefer a kitchenaid over a handmixer, but a hand mixer works almost as well and fits our storage space. PS that thing with handle and round wire thing is most likely a pastry cutter cuts in fats into the flour) you do not need fancy equipment to make good pastry!

In the winter I make lots and lots of soups, and I use the slow cooker(s) to make chilis, broths, pot roasts, and so forth. Toss everything in and ignore it until suppertime. I can make large batches and freeze them for future lazy/busy evenings.

The pressure cooker makes cooking whole grains, beans, and tough meats something that can happen in about an hour.

Several of the soups I make require last-minute pureeing, so the immersion blender comes in very handy. I’ve tried pouring hot soup into the blender or food processor, but it’s so much easier to stick the immersion blender into the hot soup.

So much depends on what kind of cook you are. Thirty years after first starting to assemble my own kitchen stuff, here’s what I learned. When it comes to pots and pans, quality matters – buy one pot that lasts forever. You’ll pay for it, but that payment will be SO worth it, and your children will inherit them and, someday, be grateful. We have a set of All Clad pans, and they are tremendous, and expensive, and worth it. We have a “scanpan” nonstick pan for fish – expensive, lasts forever, worth it. I have a Le Creuset dutch oven that I use constantly – but if you’re going to get one, don’t bother with the 3.5 quart size, go for at least the 5 quart size. Also, some advice I got early on that was so worthwhile – always buy a bigger pan than you think you need. So true. I have a set of knives that were expensive (Globe) and 25 years later, they are still great. I got my son a set of 3 for his new kitchen, and 25 years from now, they will still be great. In terms of gadgets, I have a KitchenAid stand mixer, which I use all the time, and a food processor, which I use all the time. I have an ancient slow cooker, which I use frequently enough to make it worthwhile. If you don’t have the counter space for the stand mixer, don’t buy one, as you will not haul it out often enough to make it worth the price – buy a good hand mixer instead. Don’t bother with a fancy sifter thing – get a few high quality metal sieves – multiple uses. Get a rolling pin covered with silicone that’s very long – that’s all you’ll ever need. When you buy cutting boards, buy a very big wooden one with a trench along the outside (the trench is for carving meat), and a set of smaller color coded plastic ones – all you’ll ever need, although the plastic ones will need to be replaced from time to time. Great glassware is available cheap, and they inevitably break, so I wouldn’t bother with any expensive glasses. I bought a set of nice wine glasses on sale a long time ago, and I use them for parties. I have a small set of champagne glasses from Cost Plus that people inevitably admire, which cracks me up every time. Otherwise, we have a set of cheapo wine glasses for every day – no stems, $2.50 each.

I very much agree on the high quality pots and pans. I initially scoffed at my husband’s wish to register for them for our wedding. But they look incredible eight years later and are well-nigh indestructible. That $100+ All Clad stock pot will outlive me.

We also registered for only four Henckels knives and that’s still all we use years later.

I think all of us use pots, pans, and knives, but pretty much everything else is variable and depends on your food palate and overall cooking style. What is essential for one person is a waste for someone else.

My favorite appliance that I also scoffed at initially? The rice cooker. That thing is wonderful and used weekly. We make more than just rice in it – quinoa, oatmeal, etc.

I looked for new pots and pans when we redid our kitchen, partly for the look and partly because all of our wedding stuff had worn out after 20 years. I am not very strong due to a chronic condition and was quite surprised at how heavy some of the new cookware is – could hardly lift it without any food in it, so didn’t think it would be good for me. I finally just bought the old tried and true Revere ware, which has stood the test of the past 18 years. I do have three dutch ovens, though, and one more than one occasion have used all of them simultaneously. Very handy.

I have Revere ware, but also a cast iron skillet. I’m glad that I have it because it is lighweight and sturdy. However, the new Revere ware is not worth much. Go to thrift shops and estate sales and get the oldest pans you can find. They are heavier, and you can feel the copper coating.

Absolutely! We still have our original Revere pots and frying pans, and they’re fine, 40-odd years on. We use them every day. A couple of the handles are discolored from the dishwasher, but they’re not warped and they heat evenly.

Daily:
Cast iron pans – All of them were purchased used and are about ~50-80 years old now (estate and yard sales).

Knives – Good quality knives are worth the $$ investment.

Vitamix – It was a gift, I never would have purchased it because of the cost but its something I use on a daily basis.

Few times a week:
Le Creuset set – Purchased 10 years ago and was a floor model and a return item so it was heavily discounted. I use the Dutch over at least once a week.

Food processor – Its a 20-year-old Cuisinart that’s very handy when it comes to chopping large amounts for batch cooking. My kitchen is incredibly small (smaller than a lot of bathrooms), too small for someone who cooks daily so I kept the food processor to make life a little easier in the kitchen. My work space for cutting doubles as a dish dryer. :-/

Steam pot – Cheap and very useful.

What I can life without:
Microwave – Haven’t owned one in years. DH wants us to get one but there is no room for it.

Toaster – We don’t eat toast or bread.

Stand mixer – I sold my prized Kitchen aid professional mixer before moving to Portland. I could no longer eat what I was making with it so it turned into a useless item for me. I use a hand mixer if I need to.

The rest of the commonly used items are my mixing bowls, Pyrex, and cooking tools. Because of the size of my kitchen, many of the items are stored elsewhere in the apartment, even the items I use several times a week.

The stuff we use most often:
–Cast-iron frying pan. Found it in the “free” box at a yard sale. A little steel wool took care of the rust.
–Strainer. Got it from my daughter, who got it at a dollar store. I use it to strain soup stock, yogurt, lentils, gravy…
–Warming tray. My partner has no idea how he got this thing and it sat unused in the cupboard for ages. I use it to proof bread dough and culture yogurt. Before that, I used a heating pad set on low for both tasks.
–Iced tea pitcher. It’s a plastic thing that I got from my sister when she moved in with her fiance more than 33 years ago.
–Crock pot. We use it for stews and chilis, roasting meat (cheap cuts become fork-tender) and for making soup stock. I got mine from my daughter (when she married, one of her gifts was a larger, fancier crock pot); if I hadn’t, I would have bought one for $9.99 at the Black Friday sales. My partner has a bigger model that gets the most use.
–Stainless steel cookware. I bought a set from Macy’s on sale and with a discounted gift card.
–Cookie sheets. The kind with air in between the two layers — I use them for cookies and for homemade rolls. These came from a yard sale.
–Pressure canner. Partner and I are canning chicken and turkey when it goes on sale; this year we also canned the carrots we grew. This machine cost more than $100 but we are delighted with the way it works and figure it will amortize fairly quickly. (A few years ago a big storm took away the power for three days. He pressure-canned the meat and fish in his freezer to avoid having to throw it away.)
Canning jars. For jam, for carrots, for chicken and turkey — I got a couple of dozen quart-sized jars from Freecycle, and more than 100 pints and half-pints plus a bunch of jar centers for $10 at a yard sale. Since I give away jam at Christmas, I scout thrift stores for replacements.
My point — as you may have gathered — is that kitchen stuff doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Housewares catalogs are like porn for foodies. A few basic items CAN get you through; add others a few at a time, lest you overbuy on stuff you rarely/never use.
Try this: Ask friends if you can borrow that cheese straightener or bread-crumb pulverizer. It may turn out to be more trouble than it’s worth, or you may find that what you were doing before works just as well.
My mom saw me using a fork to cut shortening into flour for a pie crust and offered to buy me a pastry blender. I declined, with thanks. Years later I found one in the free box at a yard sale and you know what? I found it a bit clunky to use and hard to wash. So I donated it to Value Village and went back to the fork.
Do what works for you, but don’t let a housewares store (or a friend who’s selling Pampered Chef) determine what you “need.” That would be like asking the barber if you need a haircut.

I love my two Dutch ovens, I make our jellies and jams instead of store bought and the thick pans are essential to avoid scorching. Also a must have for soups and braises. One odd gadget I now am a big fan of is the ricer. I got one since I was hosting thanksgiving this year and I’ve found so many uses for it, just made spaetzle with it last night! You’ve got me thinking about finding a new home for the toaster, only use it 2-3 times a month.

Just FYI to those who want to make jam: You don’t need to run out and buy a Dutch oven. I make jam in a regular stainless steel saucepan and have never had a batch burn.
I remember reading about using a ricer to make baby food. Then again, you could also put it in a blender or a food processor, or just mash the food up with a fork.

When our baby was little, we bought a simple baby food food mill. It ground everything up suitable for the little guy, right at the table. I packed it when we traaveled and at restaurants, too. It was easy to wash, as well. We never bought baby food, and I think we saved a ton of money because of it.

Someone else not only knows what spaetzle is, but you make it, too??? I love that stuff. My mom actually has a spaetzle maker which I have borrowed, but – funny story, at least to me – we are always finding stuff from the previous owners of our house tucked away. Recently, we found a grater with holes big enough to press the spaetzle dough (or batter?) through with a wooden spoon. They were pretty delicious.

My mom has a spaetzle maker she got from her mom and it says “made in Western Germany” (not even “West Germany” as it was known till 1990) which means it was made shortly after WWII. I finally bought my own in the mid ’90’s when visiting relatives in Germany. My cousin could make hers the old school way (cutting the dough on a cutting board and tossing it into the boiling water) but I always thought using the Spaetzlepresse was a lot more fun.

Interestingly I didn’t see a breadmaker on anybody’s list so far. We use one daily, as we make all of our bread at home. Yes, I could make it by hand and I do it occasionally (right now for the holidays almost every day), but for everyday use a breadmaking machine is such a timesaver. After our old one died earlier this year we splurged on a Zojirushi and never regretted it.

Otherwise we use most of the things we have pretty regularly, my “out of the way” drawer has very few things in it. I do have a few specialty items such as a crepes pan, a grill pan, a clay pot, etc – which may be used once or twice a month, but really do a very good job.

The one thing I wish I could declutter is my baking drawer. Since I often decorate cakes and such for my kids and friends, there is a lot of random stuff and leftovers that pile up from different decorating projects. That sounds like a good goal for 2014:-)

I agree. Both regarding making your own bread and the Zojirushi brand. I’ve been using a breadmaker regularly for years, and when my last breadmaker died, I sprung for the Zojirushi, and was really impressed with the result.

For years, we’ve been having people over for dinner and getting raves for the bread (and we send them home with the rest of the loaf), but the Zojirushi really has made the best bread ever!

Kitchens really are individual! We love our nonstick pans and literally never use our other ones. I practically don’t know how to cook without a nonstick pan now. Also essential for us: a slow cooker, ceramic knives, a rice cooker, cutting surfaces, and our toaster oven. We also have a bunch of stuff that we registered for not knowing any better that we would rarely or never use it, unfortunately.

How timely! We did a major purge on our kitchen the day after Christmas. Here’s what we donated/tossed/sold:

-Blender
-Wok
-Extra cutlery
-A broken colander and disgusting chopping board that I had a hard time letting go of for sentimental reasons (they were my parents’, I remember them from my youth)
-Juicer (we replaced with a Nutribullet, which we use often)
-Veggie chopper (supposed to be convenient, but ironically, I was always too lazy to dig it out of the cupboards)

Aside from pots/pans/silverware, here are some items I didn’t want to get rid of:

-Slow cooker
-Fancy pie dishes (I love making fancy pies)
-Griddler/waffle maker (My parents got this for me one year, and it’s pretty cool. When I do bring it out, I use it for weeks at a time)

I love the “any appliance that is large and has one purpose” rule. Though I do have fantasies of owning a cotton candy machine someday.

I just got an enameled 5qt Dutch oven for Christmas. My Aluminum one is going. I do have 3 Annodized Aluminum (non-stick, no-teflon) skillets we use a lot. I have 3 sizes of saucepans that are stainless steel with Aluminum disk bottoms that were Martha Stewart-branded form KMart 10 or so years ago. I have a cast iron skillet and a pressure cooker with 2 sizes of pots. The bigger one lives in the basement. Hubby keeps offering to get me a Kitchen Aid, but I don’t want to take up precious counter space, so my hand mixer does fine. He also got me a stick blender with a case of accessories.. (bigger is better). I do love my gadgets. I’d get rid of the 4-slice toaster but Hubby loves it. He’d get rid of my toaster oven, but when my teens are feeding themselves, the toaster oven get a lot of use. I have a love-hate relationship with a George Foreman grill… I love my Food Saver for the once a month trips to Costco. My freezer is very high on my list even though I have at least 5 stores selling groceries and countless restaurants in a 1 mile radius from home.

As for toast, if you have gas burners you can downsize to a camping-style toaster meant for the firepit. This costs about $2 and takes up no more space than a single plate.

I have a knife block that hangs on the wall so profile is very slim.

As for single use machines, I wouldn’t be parted from my rice cooker or coffee grinder for anything. Also I discovered Vitamix this year and am in love. Making soup almost every week now. Got rid of my old blender years ago because it was so unsatisfying and messy.

Oh man – I couldn’t live without my cast iron skillet either! I cook almost everything on skillet. But I hardly ever use my toaster either – I don’t even know why I have it. Good tips! My boyfriend is just setting up his new kitchen and I will be sure to forward this to him.

We actually got a keurig has a gift. I actually love the ease of using it also i waste less coffee with it. Before with our traditional coffee pot we would only drink 1 or 2 cups out of it now we have no waste and since we didnt buy it i can justify the cost of the k cups.

This is not meant to be judgmental in any way – my office has a keurig and it’s great – but I just wanted to point out that the waste of having individually-packaged servings of coffee is way more wasteful than tossing away half a pot of brewed coffee.

My crockpot. I use it at least once a week, usually more. Luckily, we have one of those lazy Susan things in the corner cupboard. Also, my husband grinds my coffee beans for me every day so the coffee grinder is a must. We don’t have a coffee maker, however, just a filter holder.

I gave away our coffee maker. That probably sounds insane to most people, but I hate coffee and my husband’s reflux makes it a no-no for him. Several times a year I make tiramisu, and I stop at a restaurant for a cup of good coffee as needed for that recipe.

We still use the original Corelle dishes that we bought when we first got married….almost 40 years ago. Only time any have broken is when we lived in a house with a tile kitchen floor….otherwise they just bounce when dropped. Over the years we have added on to our set as we find our pattern at secondhand stores. I really like glass bake ware and mixing/serving bowls. They match with everything on the table and can also be used in the microwave. Also….they do not rust out in our salt air.

Nobody has mentioned a knife sharpener? I have a less-than-$20 version that fits in my silverware drawer and also sharpens scissors. You don’t really need expensive knives, just sharp ones. Mine are kept on a magnetic strip that fits on the wall, under the upper cabinets.

I found my knife/scissors sharpener on Amazon.com–the “Kitchen IQ V-Slot 10 Second Knife and Scissors Sharpener” looks like it, though I think mine was a different brand name. I wouldn’t use it on expensive knives or scissors, but for mine it’s excellent.

I agree with you about flimsy knives. The ones I have weren’t terribly expensive, but they’re sturdy, well-balanced, and comfortable to use. They’ve lasted decades, and look to be good for more.

I try to only buy things I need, but sometimes you have to be willing to make mistakes in order to find things you’ll use often. For instance, I thought I would love a slow cooker for soups, but it turns out I prefer a regular old pot on the stove. I wouldn’t have known that unless I’d tried.

However, I do love my convection toaster oven for baking small things, and my George Foreman grill is great for grilling peppers and as a sandwich press.

My lil’ brother got me a HUGE George Foreman grill for Christmas. I was wondering what he was thinking, but then I used it for the first time when my daughter and SIL were dropping off three hungry children for the week after work. I made Cuban sandwiches for six in four minutes! None for me, sadly, because I’m gluten intolerant. The grandkids were very impressed and said I should open a restaurant. Heh. The pepperoni calzones the next day didn’t take long, either.

As for my essentials: Three cast iron frying pans, a cast iron chicken fryer, various sizes of cast iron dutch ovens (we used to camp a lot), and stainless steel cooking pans. The crockpot is usually used several times per week in the winter. I have a pressure cooker for when I forget to put food in the crockpot in the morning (grin)to cook.

Keurigs are awesome. That’s really all I disagree with in this article. They may not be a must have for non-coffee drinkers, but if you drink coffee they can save you hundreds of dollars a year. Also, the ease of use and variety of drinks it can instantly make is quite amazing in my mind.

Best part about this article to me is you could expand the same logic to any room in your house. Look at all the crap Americans are prodded into buying that is a waste of money!!

You put a Dutch oven on your “what you could live without” list, but seriously, getting one made my life so much better. I use mine every week when I batch-cook. It’s big enough for soup or pasta sauce. When I’m making something that requires a quick meat browning and then a long braise (huntsman’s chicken, a roast), it means a one-pot dinner. I’ve also used it as a deep-fryer, and to cook breads with particularly wet doughs. Mine _is_ a Le Creuset (it has a 100 year guarantee!), but I’ve seen pretty good quality knock-offs at Williams Sonoma for half the price.

A great idea in concept, however poorly implemented. I purchased one hoping to save space but found that the coffee maker leaked and the toaster oven was a fire hazard (timer does not turn off the oven).

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My name is J.D. Roth. I started Get Rich Slowly in 2006 to document my personal journey as I dug out of debt. Then I shared while I learned to save and invest. Twelve years later, I've managed to reach early retirement! I'm here to help you master your money — and your life. No scams. No gimmicks. Just smart money advice to help you get rich slowly. Read more.

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